Saturday, October 05, 2013

School Administration Looks Stupid

In my previous post I wrote about the Anaheim girl who was forced to remove her NRA t-shirt at school because it promoted violence. It didn't promote violence at all, of course, so it wasn't a violation of the school's dress code--and the school has now apologized for being such idiots in the first place:

On Thursday, the school changed course and apologized to the
16-year-old and said campus staff will be trained so that “an incident
like this does not occur again."

The offending T-shirt was white with an American flag and a
silhouette of a hunter with a rifle and the slogan: “National Rifle
Association of America, Protecting America’s Traditions Since 1871.”

In asking the student to remove the shirt, school officials said the
depiction of the rifle was a violation of the school’s dress code. When
the student’s parents wrote to the school’s principal, suggesting that
administrators had infringed on their daughter’s constitutional rights,
Principal Kimberly Fricker responded by sending the parents the school’s
policy on clothing that depicts violence.

The school’s dress code prohibits clothing that promotes or depicts
violence, criminal activity and anything that’s degrading to ethnic
values, among other restrictions.

“In general, anything that is divisive or offensive to a staff
member,” the policy said. “The administration reserves the right to
restrict any clothing or accessories that in our judgment detracts from
the educational environment of Canyon High School.”

However, after reviewing the pictures on the shirt, Fricker later
concluded that the shirt didn’t promote violence, the Orange Unified
School District said in a statement.

How can we expect students and their parents to respect us and the work we do when we do such stupid things in our profession? What kind of ninny thinks a picture of a hunter "promotes or depicts violence"? Pardon the pun, but we in education shoot ourselves in the foot when we act so capriciously, silly, and just plain ignorant.